Andalusian Arabic, it seems to me, would require the least ancient POD and the most recognizable 2019.
In the sense of Egyptian Arabic maybe, but otherwise you'd need a reason why something like MSA wasn't the lingua franca instead.
Andalusian Arabic, it seems to me, would require the least ancient POD and the most recognizable 2019.
More regionally coherent polities could potentially lead to the prestige language fissuring, like with the Romance languages.In the sense of Egyptian Arabic maybe, but otherwise you'd need a reason why something like MSA wasn't the lingua franca instead.
i'm planning to have Sumerian used as the basis for the spacefaring Republic of Humankind in one of my non-AH writing projects
Andalusian Arabic, it seems to me, would require the least ancient POD and the most recognizable 2019.
Maybe Arameic becomes a holy text Language of one major world religion. A Manx Pod would be borderline ASB but creative.With any POD you like (before 1900, of course) have a language that IOTL became extinct become the lingua franca of commerce, diplomacy, and education to a similar degree that OTL English is.
For a language to qualify as "extinct" for the purposes of this AHC, it must be a language that disappears completely, not one that leaves behind linguistic descendants. Thus, whilst they both do not have native speakers, things like Latin and old Chinese do not qualify, since their descendants are still spoken today.
However, it may be a language that is still "known" in the present if neither it nor its linguistic descendants have native speakers. Coptic would be an example in this category.
Edit: POD's must ideally be before the extinction of the language--i.e. no resurrecting a language from the grave.
Well,within the Recorded History, I'd say Latin had a very good chance followed by Greek. A Finno-Ugric empire in Empire in Europe could give that a chance as well. These are the ones I can think of first.
It is not.
Akkadian represents (alongside Eblaite, which some actually class as a divergent dialect of it) the Eastern branch of the Semitic language family, while all other known Semitic langauges living, dead, in suspended animation or resurrected, belong to the Western branch. This is among the least controversial points of Semitic historical branching, actually, as the distinctive features of Akkadian especially in the verbal system (but also, phonology and syntax) set it quite apart from the rest of Semitic in a very recognizable way.
Some forms of neo-Aramaic spoken in Mesopotamia and surroundings, such as neo-Mandaic, exhibit quite detectable substrate influences from late dialects of Akkadian, but they are not their descendants (as did earlier Aramaic varieties in the relevant areas). Akkadian also left an imprint on other forms of Aramaic and many other languages (Semitic or not) with which it had contact, but it is believed to have become entirely extinct, even as a written language, by the second century CE at latest. Its latest known derivates (Late Assyrian and Late Babylonian) probably had disappeared from ordinary spoken usage centuries earlier.
Kushano actually spoke Bactrian with a Greco-Bactrian Alphabet which still qualifies as an extinct language and a curious case of culture mixing. You could have seen the Kushans project power up into Central Asia, protect the Tocharians from Turkic invasion and repel the Muslims when they march east. I'm imagining Afghanistan as a well protected natural fortress guarding India and extending over Greater Khorasan possibly until the Mongols arrive but they, for all their brutality, tended to assimilate after a time so Kushan culture, language would be preserved in Afghanistan and Central Asia and it would be prominent in India as well. Buddhism would do well too, having what is in effect a continuous theocratic empire from it early expansion. It would be a fusion of Mahayana and Vajrayana sects that would be predominant in Kushan territory and East Asia which they would have helped convert, which Tocharian assistance.
Another scenario is that the Tocharians somehow, perhaps with, say, Scythian help, manage to conqueror China and establish an influential dynasty or explore and settle new lands on the frontiers. They could survive that way, not 100% certain but the chances improve. Come and have a look at this: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ti-the-scythian-redhairs-of-east-asia.459451/
A Manx Pod would be borderline ASB but creative.
Short answer: yes, as a simplification.Do you not consider Mehri and Soqotri as southern Semitic? Or Amharic and Geez?
Quite like the idea of a non-Hungarian Finno-Ugric Empire composed of Finland, Sami territories, Karelia, Kola peninsula as well as nearby non-contiguous territories like Estonia and possibly the western (Livonian+) part of Latvia (notwithstanding an ATL Helsinki to Tallinn Tunnel) roughly featuring similar population numbers to OTL Hungary.
Into historic times (end of first millennium AD), Baltic Finns (and their dialect continuum which includes Finnish and Estonian) spread pretty far into northern Russia. They'd need to push further south into where the Volga Finns (who spoke several distantly related Uralic languages) to have any real chance of being a power of global importance (basically replacing Russia). Otherwise you have a super Novgorod whose language would probably be closest to modern Ingrian (not quite extinct). "Finnic Russia" would guarantee speak a Uralic language which is now extinct.